


What Cannot Be Taken

by Tabithian



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Nightwing - Fandom, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-22
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 15:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Ah,” said the Bat, “I see now. He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Cannot Be Taken

**Author's Note:**

> After making myself (and other people) sad with [this post](http://tabithian.tumblr.com/post/29941804762/the-bat-the-birds-and-the-beasts) (what is wrong with me?) I tried to make it better? I just don't know anymore. *hands*

“Ah,” said the Bat, “I see now. He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends.”

Silence hangs in the air after Jason finishes speaking.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dick demands, throwing his hands in the air. "We're supposed to be doing something nice for him, not, not - "

"Adding to his list of deep emotional trauma?" Tim says, staring at the monitor covered in surveillance camera stills Jason decided to use for his special - oh so special - gift to Bruce.

For once they're all more or less in a good place, or at least a good enough place that they can come together to try - try being the operative word - to do something nice for Bruce. Not for any specific holiday or other kind of significant date because those are almost guaranteed to be fraught with emotional baggage for at least one of them, so. 

 

_"A present for his unbirthday? Better make sure Hatter doesn't get wind of your little Bat shindig, then."_

_"No, you buffoon. Grayson insists you be present as well."_

_"You're fucking kidding me."_

_“Jason. He wants all of us there.”_

_“It'll be a fucking disaster.”_

_“Probably. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try.” Dick, hoping for the best. "Come on, Little Wing.”_

 

"Okay, so we're going to have to start over," Dick says, looking like he's starting to wonder if this was doomed to failure from the start. 

"You don't say," Damian puts in, snide and snotty and not helping at all.

"Maybe." Tim looks at the surveillance camera stills. The shot of the four of them together not actually trying to violently harm each other is promising. It's cliché and trite and he's pretty sure he's seen this in a movie somewhere, but. 

"Tim?"

"Just. Look," Tim says, gesturing the monitor. "One of the few times we aren't trying to kill each other. Or you know, even just maim each other." (And, oh, how many families can say that?)

"I could fix that, if you find it so unpalatable."

"Shut it, brat," Jason says, cuffing Damian on the back of the head as he moves closer to the computer console. "Go back a bit," Jason says, glancing at Tim. "I think - "

Tim does as he asks and another still of them working together as a team fills the screen. Tim stares at it because. It's just a still, yes, but Tim can read how the scene's going to play out in their body language and just knowing the others. 

And. It's one thing to be there in the moment, working together with people who have been trained by the same person, to anticipate their moves. It's another to _see_ it. 

"Is there more?" Dick asks, dropping a hand on Tim's shoulder. Tim nods, queuing up the video footage, aware of Damian creeping up next to Dick in his periphery.

"Nice thinking," Dick says, smiling at Tim and bumping Jason's shoulder as the video plays and they watch the four of them working like the team they never got a chance to be. 

It's a few years late, yes, and not a little of pain and suffering in between, but this. This would be a nice surprise for any parent.


End file.
